2004 IgNobel Prizes

“The Effect of Country Music on Suicide“? “Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping“? You’ve gotta see this! “The IgNobel prizes have been awarded each year since 1991 by the scientific community to reward research that could not, or should not be reproduced.

Almost everyone has heard of the Nobel Prizes, named after Alfred Nobel, which are awarded to people who have achieved the truly spectacular, such as Albert Einstein, he of E=mc2 fame, and Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet who won the Nobel prize for peace in 1989. At first glance, the IgNobel prizes may seem silly, until you understand the deeper meaning of these prizes to some of the scientific community.

Some of the prizes are commentaries on current affairs, others are recognition for having the courage to make a fool of yourself in public in the name of increasing the public understanding of science, and others are awarded to highlight some of the stranger aspects of science and non-science, to make the audience laugh, and then to make them think. Other prizes are awarded to hold a mirror up to the scientific world as a whole, as a general excuse to have a good laugh and dispel the myth that scientists are all really boring people.

Each year, approximately ten prizes are awarded in various areas, which vary slightly from year to year. They are awarded at a gala ceremony at Harvard University in the USA in October, and are presented to their lucky winners by genuine Nobel laureates. The event is organised by US Science Magazine The Annals of Improbable Research which is to mainstream science journals what Punch is to The Times. Potential winners are nominated by readers of the magazine and via e-mail to the editor, Marc Abrahams at Harvard University, USA.”